Formidable Female Protagonist in Science Fiction – My Unread

One of my objectives with Formidable Female Protagonists in Science Fiction was to expand my to-read list with more awesome female protagonists. A little more than one third of the list is new to me characters and books and I have collected them here. I will use the list for future reading and make updates to the original list as I review them.

I have made a preliminary ranking. This is my arbitrary how-much-I-want-to read about that character. My criteria has not been overly scientific. I based it on how much I think I will enjoy the reading and how interesting the character seems to be. I think I picked those inside my comfort zone first. I like space opera and military science fiction. I also like coming-of-age, learning-the-world kind of themes.

I would love your input. Is there someone I should move up in priority? Please tell me why and I might be convinced to read it earlier.

My To-Read List

I want to make a short comment on my motivations for the top picks.

The Mockinjay is series that have been getting a lot of positive buzz. It is a coming-of-age story which I also like. The story about a young girl taking her brother’s place in a gladiator game and becoming a front figure for a revolution against oppression has appeal to me.

Vernor Vinge is enough of a recommendation for me. I have not read so many books by him yet but I like what I have read and would like to read more. There are a few others of his books I am planing to read first. There is an omnibus version of A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky coming out this month from Gollancz I plan to read first. Tatja Grim sounds like another kind of story I like to read, a journey-of-discovery. Mensa level barbarian meets futuristic society and learns to read.

I have a whole bunch of Larry Niven books on my reading list starting with the Fleet of Worlds sequence. I want to go back and finish the Ring world books after that so Teela Brown is sure to come up there.

I highly recommend “Glory Season” by David Brin. The main characters are twin sisters just entering adulthood. They live on an isolated planet whose founders re-engineered the nature of human sexes so that women are the great majority of the population and relatively rarely interact with men. A fun read and a great exploration of some ideas about gender and society.